Electronic devices such as mobile telephones including wireless communication transceivers typically include both a user input interface in the form of keys or buttons, and a user output interface in the form of one or more displays. Audio interfaces are normally also included by means of speakers and microphones. In terms of traditional telephony services, user input keys are typically used for setting up calls, whereas the microphone and the speaker are used for standard speech communication.
In recent years, mobile telephones have become much more than pure speech communication devices. Fast development and miniaturization in battery technology and electronic components, as well as the breakthrough of small high resolution color displays, has lead to compact radio communication terminals more and more taking the form of media terminals. Many mobile telephones of today are capable of receiving FM radio, and comprise digital media players for playing music. Digital video may also be stored and presented on the display of some types of terminals. It is generally possible for a user to access locally stored media items through playlists including stored media items, or to access radio channels through radio station playlists. It is also possible to create personal playlists of e.g. locally stored music tracks, such as a playlist including a number of specifically selected songs, or a playlist with a predefined set of music tracks collected from a certain artist or representing a certain style or genre. Activation of that playlist will then trigger the media player to play the items defined in the list, either in the playlist order or in random order. Activation of an FM radio channel in a radio playlist will set a tuner to the frequency of that channel and play it in real time without storing. The played items are presented on the user output of the terminal, i.e. on the display in the case of video, or through a speaker or earpiece speaker in the case of audio.
Mobile telephones are known to operate with portable handsfrees or headsets which may be plugged into the handset of the mobile telephone to provide a handsfree talking facility. Historically, the portable handsfrees for mobile telephones were limited to voice communication. However, due to the fact that mobile telephones are more and more taking the form of media terminals as described hereinabove, recent portable handsfrees have been developed to also be operable to present music to the user through a speaker or earpiece speaker of the portable handsfree. As one example of this, the SONY ERICSSON W810i mobile telephone available from Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications may operate using a SONY ERICSSON HPM-70 Stereo Portable Handsfree. A portable handsfree 10 is schematically shown in FIG. 1, and includes a portable handsfree cable 11. The handsfree cable 11 comprises an in-line microphone portion 12. As is illustrated in FIG. 1, the handsfree cable 11 may be branched-off, at the microphone portion 12, into two separate end portions 11a, 11b. In the outer end of each of these two end portions 11a, 11b there are provided earpiece speakers 13a, 13b. Furthermore, the portable handsfree 10 may comprise a clip (not shown) or the like for securing the handsfree 10 to an item of clothing. Finally, the handsfree cable 11 also comprises a connector 14 for plugging into a jack on a mobile telephone (not shown).
The inventor of the present invention has realized that current music players, e.g. MP3 players such as the iPod shuffle available from APPLE COMPUTER have an advantage over current mobile telephones in that they may be plugged directly into a personal computer. Thus, it is easy for users of iPod shuffles to import music from other peoples' personal computers and use their iPod shuffles as portable “hard disks” without bringing a separate cable or the like. As of today, to do this with currently available mobile telephones, e.g. the SONY ERICSSON W810i mobile telephone available from Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, the user may need to bring a separate cable which is dedicated for connection and data transmission between the mobile telephone and the personal computer only. However, this may be annoying to the user if the user wishes to bring around as few articles as possible. Alternatively, if the personal computer supports the same memory stick, e.g. MS duo or M2, as the mobile telephone in question, music can be shared by users by interchanging music from each others' memory stick. However, when interchanging memory sticks between mobile telephones and personal computers there may be a risk that the memory stick can be lost or damaged. Therefore, the inventor of the present invention has realized that there is a need for an alternative means or way of connecting a mobile telephone to a personal computer to enable data transmission therebetween, such that the one or more of the disadvantages or deficiencies described above are at least partly mitigated, alleviated or eliminated.